


Flaming Tears

by EmmeMadris



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adult Draco Malfoy, Adult Hermione Granger, Angst, Angst and Romance, Break Up, Crying, F/M, Gentle Kissing, Good Draco Malfoy, Goodbyes, HP Drizzle Fest 2020, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Inspired By Tumblr, Inspired by Music, Kissing, Kissing in the Rain, Muggle London, POV Draco Malfoy, Post-Canon, Post-Hogwarts, Post-War, Rain, Redeemed Draco Malfoy, not HEA
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:41:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25806778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmmeMadris/pseuds/EmmeMadris
Summary: He set fire to the rain and watched it pour as it touched her face.He let it burn while he cried because he heard it screaming her name.Hermione...
Relationships: Hermione Granger & Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 17
Kudos: 58
Collections: HP Drizzle Fest 2020





	Flaming Tears

**Author's Note:**

> This piece was inspired by a prompt from [Misdemeanor1331](https://misdemeanor1331.tumblr.com) on Tumblr and written for the HP Drizzle Fest 2020. 
> 
> "But I set fire to the rain  
> Watched it pour as I touched your face  
> Let it burn while I cried  
> 'Cause I heard it screaming out your name, your name"  
> \- Set Fire to the Rain by Adele 
> 
> Thank you to [captaingoodwin](https://captaingoodwin.tumblr.com), [amurray](https://amurray.tumblr.com), [rosequartzstars](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/13476437/), and [Elebelle](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/948184/) for beta-ing. 
> 
> Find me on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/emmemadris/) and [Tumblr](https://emmemadris.tumblr.com).
> 
> Disclaimer: No copyright intended. Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling.

* * *

Hermione’s eyes fell from his, her gaze wandering off into the distance. 

She didn’t seem to be looking at anything in particular. Her brown eyes were blank and her features hardened into an expression he couldn’t quite discern. 

Draco’s chest ached, the sting ricocheting off his heart and rushing through his mind until he could feel tears prick the backs of his eyes like needles pressing against his skull. 

They sat so close together on the picnic bench in some London park he couldn’t remember the name of. They were so close that he could lean over right now and press his lips against hers, cradle her head against his chest, and tell her everything would be alright.

They were so close, yet he had never felt further away from her. 

He could feel the unspoken grief lingering in the cool air between them, threatening to explode at any moment. 

She probably felt the tingling breeze brush against her skin, reminiscing about the time they snuggled up in each other’s arms in the gardens of Malfoy Manor, gazing up at the stars all night until they fell asleep in the early hours of the morning.

Or maybe she remembered their gentle love-making, skin pressed against skin, with promises made to love each other forever. He wondered if the thoughts sent flutters to her core as she watched the moonlight caress the water’s curves. 

Perhaps the wistful silence that drifted through the air reminded her of the long hours of reticence shared between them each night as they lay in bed together, both suppressing their unending loneliness with the feeling of another body next to theirs. 

Those thoughts certainly passed through his mind as they sat beside each other in a gloomy silence, lips quivering from the cruel bite of the wind and their thighs occasionally brushing against one another.

He didn’t know what she was thinking about. 

Through his peripheral vision he could see her detached gaze, staring out into the void. He wondered if she felt as melancholy as he did. 

Surely, they were both aware of how this would end. 

He didn’t know if she would speak first, or if he should. The silence was simultaneously comforting and tense; he was afraid to break it. 

“Hermione…” Draco finally whispered in a voice so desperate he wondered if it was really him speaking. 

She didn’t turn her head. Her gaze remained unfocused, as if she were in some sort of trance. 

Silence pressed more aggressively between them, driving them further apart in their already distant state. 

It felt so cruel. 

He thought he noticed her eyes glazing over, glistening as the moonlight reflected off her irises. He hoped she didn’t cry, or else he would too. 

“ _Hermione_ ,” he pleaded, his voice cracking beneath the weight of her name. 

He couldn’t even recognise himself anymore. 

She slowly turned to face him this time, her lips shivering and tinged a faint blue colour from the cold. He wished he could reach out and warm them with his love, make them feel alive with his kisses, but his heart felt much too empty. 

Hermione stared at him for a moment. Her face appeared impassive, but sadness seemed to envelop her eyes. 

“Why?” she asked quietly, her breath materialising into a billowy wisp from the coldness. “Why are you doing this?” 

He sighed, staring up towards the sky for a moment. 

The clouds looked darker and more spiteful than usual. They would soon eclipse the moon. 

“I wish I didn’t have to,” he said solemnly. “You know I don’t want to.” 

She stared at him a moment longer before speaking again. For the first time, her eyes seemed to fill with desperation--a sight that drove through his chest so sharply, cutting his bleeding heart again and again until he felt like collapsing. 

“I don’t want it to end this way,” she replied, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them protectively. 

He could tell she would begin to cry soon. 

He wanted to tell her it would be okay. 

She could sob and wail and curl up in his lap. He would stroke her hair and rub her cheeks, promising her the world. 

She could tell him about the thoughts that haunted her, the nightmares that invaded her dreams. And he would tell her about his own tribulations. He would tell her about the memories that tortured his mind every waking moment and suffocated him from the inside out. 

And perhaps they would discover that they were not, in fact, completely alone. Because loneliness was a disease, he believed, and he had been ill for far too long. 

The witch he loved sat beside him, wistfully beautiful beneath the sliver of moonlight that shone through the low-hanging clouds. She was so close to him, and yet he had never felt more alone. 

Her eyes were so watery. Soon, tears would cascade down her rosy cheeks like a weeping waterfall. 

He wished he could take care of her and protect her until the very end. 

“I’m sorry,” he said, struggling to hold back his own tears. “I--you know I’m no good for you.” 

She shook her head. Tears began streaming down her face now as she buried her head in the palms of her hands. 

He felt the urge to cry too, but he feared that if he started, he would never stop. He might drown in a pool of his own heartbreak.

“N-no--” she whimpered through trembling fingers. “I-I need you. I-I don’t know what I’ll do without you…”

At that moment, his heart seemed to shatter, the explosion echoing off the walls of his empty soul. It had already been fragile to begin with, but now it felt destroyed beyond repair.

Without thinking, he laid a hand on her knee, rubbing it gently to calm her. Or maybe he was being selfish again, only touching her to calm himself. 

Whatever the reason, he immediately regretted laying a hand on her because he was suddenly flooded with memories of their ardent kisses and passionate fucking and undying devotion. 

He quickly pulled back and her shoulders seemed to slump from the sudden loss of contact. 

He couldn’t give in. 

He had spent weeks debating with himself. Months even. He loved her so much that he knew he had to let her go.

“You’ll be so much better without me,” he whispered. “You’ll become the Mistress of Magic, or maybe you’ll end house elf servitude for good. You are the brightest witch of our age for a reason.” 

Hermione’s hands fell to her lap and her lips curled upwards infinitesimally. Only someone who knew her as well as he did could sense such a microscopic change in her expression. 

It was the beginning of a smile, but a very somber one at that. It was a smile of acceptance, or perhaps it was a smile to try and convince herself that she could still feel emotions other than heartache and loneliness.

“You’re wrong,” she replied as a new wave of tears began to carve paths down her swollen cheeks. “None of that matters unless I have you with me. I _need_ you, Draco.” 

She rarely used his first name. She was pleading with him, something she had never done before. Hermione Granger did not beg anyone. 

But there she was, weeping on a park bench in the middle of London, begging him to stay. 

It began to rain. 

Slowly at first. But then the drops grew heavier and more frequent, the sky drenching them with its own tears. 

He wondered if the sky felt as empty as he did, covering the Earth and shielding it from the sun’s burning rays, but secretly weeping alone at night, flooded by its own sorrow. 

They stayed unmoving, Hermione crying to the beat of the raindrops against her skin, and Draco watching her as his stomach twisted with unbearable sadness.

Her eyes seemed to glow brighter now, more striking against the darkness that surrounded them. Her brown curls were soaked, hanging heavily from her scalp as the water flowed down the strands. 

Her eyelashes were soaked too, though Draco didn’t know whether it was from the rain or her own tears. 

There was something beautiful about the sight. 

Painfully beautiful.

“You don’t need me,” he said, his gut wrenching again. “I would only hold you back.”

She shuddered and her sobbing intensified. 

“Y-you wouldn’t,” she cried, not seeming to care about the rain that deluged her completely. “Y-you d-don’t understand--I…I-I _love_ you, Draco.” 

Professions of love were difficult to ignore, especially ones from Hermione Granger. But he had to. He loved her so much that he had to ignore her poignant declaration, no matter how painful it was for him. 

A tear slipped from the corner of his eye. 

He quickly wiped it away with the back of his hand before any more could unwillingly escape. 

He couldn’t cave. He knew this was the best choice for both of them. 

“I’m sorry,” he said again, his body physically aching as he spoke the words. “You have no idea how much I love you.”

She wailed loudly. “Then--then why do this?” 

He sighed, staring out at the water longingly. He couldn’t watch her sob anymore; it hurt his heart too much. 

He wanted her to be free like the water, he reminded himself. Free to flow in whatever direction she chose, holding back for no one, especially for someone as unimportant as him.

He loved her so much, more than anyone he had known before. And that’s why he was going to let her go. So she could be free and happy, like she deserved to be. 

Draco turned to look at her again, streams of tears still flowing from her eyes.

“Hermione,” he murmured. “Hermione, I love you more than I’ve loved anyone before. You know that. But I’m so broken. I could never be the person you need by your side. You should go and find someone who’s--”

“I-I’m broken too,” she cried, cutting him off. “We’re both broken, Draco. War does that to people.”

He grimaced, fidgeting his hands in his lap. “And that’s why we can’t be together anymore.” 

She let out a low, heart-wrenching moan, burying her face in her hands again. 

“I love you so much, Hermione,” Draco whispered again. “That’s why I’m doing this. I won’t let you be pulled down by my problems.” 

His shirt was so wet that he could feel the fabric sticking to his skin. He wondered if the drops rolling down his cheeks were the sky’s tears or his own. 

“C-can’t we talk about it, then?”

“You know we were never capable of that,” he replied sadly. “Neither one of us could pluck up the courage.” 

She didn’t respond, only continued to cry into her hands. 

He listened to her muffled sobs and whimpers for a while. They sat together, alone and lonely, in the London park as the rain continued to shower them with endless grief.

At some point--he wasn’t sure when--her crying seemed to end. Her body stopped convulsing and she raised her head, staring at him with a red-stained face and puffy eyes. 

“I wish it didn’t have to end this way,” she said, her voice nothing more than a whisper. 

This time she seemed resigned to their fate, still immensely heartbroken, but with more control. 

He gazed back at her, just as mesmerised by her big, brown eyes as he always had been. He felt like he could see her soul…even touch it if he reached out far enough.

He hesitated for a moment, debating whether or not he should give in to one last instinct. 

He had sinned many times before. It wouldn’t hurt to sin just once more. 

Grabbing her cheeks with his hands, he leaned in and kissed her desperately, tasting the hint of salt from her tears that had fallen onto her lips. 

Her kiss was docile and shy, but he could feel the emotion radiating from her body like when they had made love under the stars. 

Draco kissed her like he was dying, eager to feel her for the last time before he would walk away and never touch her again. 

He finally broke his lips from hers, but his hands continued to gently cradle her face. She looked up at him through tear-soaked lashes, but it was impossible to miss the sorrow that flooded her eyes, penetrating her soul.

It was time to leave.

He stood up, unnecessarily brushing off his drenched clothes to stall their last moment together. He eyed her closely, trying to memorise those sweet, brown eyes and that adorable, freckled nose before the image could escape him.

“Goodbye, Hermione,” he said finally. “I love you.” 

“I love you too, Draco.” 

He turned on his heel to leave and she didn’t stop him. 

Tears descended down his face uncontrollably and he tried his best to stay quiet until she was just out of reach. 

When he was certain she could no longer see him, he glanced back, taking her in one last time. 

She was staring back out towards the water, likely muttering incoherent thoughts to herself. He wondered what her face looked like at that moment. 

Something inside told him to go back, to sweep her up in his arms, and to run away with her forever. 

But he resisted. 

He watched the silhouette of her body grow fainter as he walked away until she was only a shadow in the darkness behind him. 

He had set fire to the rain, and watched it pour as it touched her face. 

He let it burn while he cried because he heard it screaming her name. 

_Hermione…_

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
